1. Men are to bring about the change themselves. They are "no longer to wait for somebody to come and help them, be it Christ in the clouds with the sound of the trumpet, be it a historic law or a differential or integral law of forces. Nobody will help us if we do not help ourselves."[1139]
"I have been told a story that happened to a courageous commissary of police. He came into a village where they had applied for soldiers on account of an outbreak among the peasants. In the spirit of Nicholas the First he proposed to make an end of the rising by his personal presence alone. He had a few cart-loads of sticks brought, gathered all the peasants in a barn, and shut himself in with them. By his shouts he succeeded in so cowing the peasants that they obeyed him and began to beat each other at his command. So they beat each other till there was found a simple-minded peasant who did not obey, and who called out to his fellows that they should not beat each other either. Only then did the beating cease, and the official made haste to get away. The advice of this simple-minded peasant" should be followed by the men of our time.[1140]
2. But it is not by violence that men are to bring about the change. "Revolutionary enemies fight the government from outside; Christianity does not fight at all, but wrecks its foundations from within."[1141]
"Some assert that liberation from force, or at least its diminution, can be effected by the oppressed men's forcibly shaking off the oppressing government; and many do in fact undertake to act on this doctrine. But they deceive themselves and others: their activity only enhances the despotism of governments, and the attempts at liberation are welcomed by the governments as pretexts for strengthening their power."[1142]
However, suppose that by the favor of circumstances (as, for instance, in France in 1870) they succeed in overthrowing a government, the party which had won by force would be compelled, "in order to remain at the helm and introduce its order into life, not only to employ all existing violent methods, but to invent new ones in addition. It would be other men that would be enslaved, and they would be coerced into other things, but there would exist not merely the same but a still more cruel condition of violence and enslavement; for the combat would have fanned the flames of hatred, strengthened the means of enslavement, and evolved new ones. Thus it has been after all revolutions, insurrections, and conspiracies, after all violent changes of government. Every fight only puts stronger means of enslavement in the hands of the men who at a given time are in power."[1143]
3. Men are to bring about the change by conforming their lives to their knowledge. "The Christian frees himself from all human authority by recognizing as sole plumb-line for his life and the lives of others the divine law of love that is implanted in man's soul and has been brought into consciousness by Christ."[1144]
This means that one is to return good for evil,[1145] give to one's neighbor all that one has that is superfluous and take away from him nothing that one does not need,[1146] especially acquire no money and get rid of the money one has,[1147] not buy nor rent,[1148] and, without shrinking from any form of work, satisfy one's needs with one's own hands;[1149] and particularly does it mean that one is to refuse obedience to the unchristian demands of State authority.[1150]
That obedience to these demands is refused we see in many cases in Russia at present. Men are refusing the payment of taxes, the general oath, the oath in court, the exercise of police functions, action as jurymen, and military service.[1151] "The governments find themselves in a desperate situation as they face the Christians' refusals."[1152] They "can chastise, put to death, imprison for life, and torture, any one who tries to overthrow them by force; they can bribe and smother with gold the half of mankind; they can bring into their service millions of armed men who are ready to annihilate all their foes. But what can they do against men who do not destroy anything, do not set up anything either, but only, each for himself, are unwilling to act contrary to the law of Christ, and therefore refuse to do what is most necessary for the governments?"[1153] "Let the State do as it will by such men, inevitably it will contribute only to its own annihilation,"[1154] and therewith to the annihilation of law and property and to the bringing in of the new order of life. "For, if it does not persecute people like the Dukhobors, the Stundists, etc., the advantages of their peaceable Christian way of living will induce others to join them—and not only convinced Christians, but also such as want to get clear of their obligations to the State under the cloak of Christianity. If, on the other hand, it deals cruelly with men against whom there is nothing except that they have endeavored to live morally, this cruelty will only make it still more enemies, and the moment must at last come when there can no longer be found any one who is ready to back up the State with instrumentalities of force."[1155]
4. In the conforming of life to knowledge the individual must make the beginning. He must not wait for all or many to do it at the same time with him.